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Samsung Austin Spilled 763,000 Gallons of Acid Waste Into Local Ecosystem

A SpaceX satellite, out of control, will impact the moon in a matter of weeks.
Another SpaceX satellite did an orbital “drive by” of a Chinese satellite nearly causing an incident.
What does this have to do with with this thread?
I do not know for sure, in any of these incidents, whether the directly responsible engineer at Samsung or SpaceX was working from home or not. But I suspect they were.
That doesn’t excuse it.
But man this pandemic has changed the routines, and limited the ”gross reality checks” US based engineers used to do, in person, since we can’t be in person as much (or at all, in some cases).
 
hist78 said:
just because nobody cared
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Lax/unenforced regulations and a subjugated "right-to-work" labor force are hallmarks of southern industrial development in America. Every year there's some sort of chemical plant that explodes next to a school or megachurch and people go "how could this happen" and then nothing changes because that would the big bad gov't coming for their freedom to die for corporations.
 
Yes, let's build more fabs in the US! Hahahaha. I worked at a fab in Silicon Valley in the 80's. It was not healthy at all back then but we were young and invincible. My wife and I moved away from it all when we had kids due to the high incident of birth defects and health issues. If you really want to know why semiconductor manufacturing moved out of the US ask the EPA. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Environmental_Protection_Agency
 
coldsolder215 said:
Lax/unenforced regulations and a subjugated "right-to-work" labor force are hallmarks of southern industrial development in America. Every year there's some sort of chemical plant that explodes next to a school or megachurch and people go "how could this happen" and then nothing changes because that would the big bad gov't coming for their freedom to die for corporations.
Click to expand...
It's evident that you are not familiar with the area and, therefore, uninformed. The Austin region is environmentally sensitive so water quality is strictly monitored and enforced by government agencies, and facilities like Samsung's have departments dedicated to compliance. It would appear that someone at Samsung was simply not doing their assigned job and, at this point, could well be a former employee.
 
The "spill" was over a 3 month period.

"While it is unknown how much waste entered the tributary, Watershed Protection Department (WPD) staff found virtually no surviving aquatic life within the entire tributary from the Samsung property to the main branch of Harris Branch Creek, near Harris Branch Parkway...."


"It would appear that someone at Samsung was simply not doing their assigned job and, at this point, could well be a former employee."

Highly unlikely that a sole person was responsible for this. This is a safety systems failure in my opinion.
 
Daniel Nenni said:
The "spill" was over a 3 month period.

"While it is unknown how much waste entered the tributary, Watershed Protection Department (WPD) staff found virtually no surviving aquatic life within the entire tributary from the Samsung property to the main branch of Harris Branch Creek, near Harris Branch Parkway...."


"It would appear that someone at Samsung was simply not doing their assigned job and, at this point, could well be a former employee."

Highly unlikely that a sole person was responsible for this. This is a safety systems failure in my opinion.
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Yes, it was definitely a failure within Samsung's monitoring system. In any case, management can't be happy about it considering their expansion plans. My primary reason for commenting was to point out that the issue was not due to "lax/unenforced regulations and a subjugated "right-to-work" labor force...". Nothing could be further from the truth. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality headquarters is literally in the neighborhood with Samsung and is a very powerful agency in a state that greatly values limited water resources.
 
TX Fly Fisher said:
It's evident that you are not familiar with the area and, therefore, uninformed. The Austin region is environmentally sensitive so water quality is strictly monitored and enforced by government agencies, and facilities like Samsung's have departments dedicated to compliance. It would appear that someone at Samsung was simply not doing their assigned job and, at this point, could well be a former employee.
Click to expand...

"The Austin region is environmentally sensitive so water quality is strictly monitored and enforced by government agencies..."

It didn't happen in this case.

After some 100+ days, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) was informed by Samsung about this leak on January 14, 2022. Then Watershed Protection Department (WPD) of Austin was informed by TCEQ on January 18, 2022. This incident has many strange issues and unanswered questions. But one thing for sure, it's was not identified first by any government agencies through any government active monitoring processes.

 
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hist78 said:
"The Austin region is environmentally sensitive so water quality is strictly monitored and enforced by government agencies..."

It didn't happen in this case.
Click to expand...
Well, if you were familiar with Central Texas, you would know that the region is criss-crossed with countless miles of creeks, streams, and rivers. It takes time to periodically test every stretch of each of those, but the issue was detected and enforcement is in progress. One agency you don't want to mess with in the state is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality so I'm sure Samsung doesn't like the position they're in.
 
TX Fly Fisher said:
Yes, it was definitely a failure within Samsung's monitoring system. In any case, management can't be happy about it considering their expansion plans. My primary reason for commenting was to point out that the issue was not due to "lax/unenforced regulations and a subjugated "right-to-work" labor force...". Nothing could be further from the truth. The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality headquarters is literally in the neighborhood with Samsung and is a very powerful agency in a state that greatly values limited water resources.
Click to expand...

I spoke to my friend who was an EPA certified Waster Water Treatment Engineer (retired) and used to work for a PCB factory. He said this incident indicated several failures contradicted to multiple required and well established EPA procedures.

For example:

#1, In such high risk factory, there is no way that waste water or raw materials can go into rain water detention pond. They are strictly designed with different handling systems. And multiple layers of protections are in place to prevent material crossing over. He said in all the states he worked before, it's impossible for Samsung with such flawed design to even get a building permit or start manufacturing operations.

#2, For such high risk factory, an EPA certified engineer is required to constantly (every hour for example) inspect input, output, and storage volume of all chemical, raw, new, and waste. How can 760,000 gallons difference between input and output gone 100+ days without notice? Are those log books fake?

#3, If this pollution was from waste water leakage, Samsung should have known that 760,000 (or more?) waste water that supposedly handled by Austin City's or Samsung's waste water treatment plant gone missing. How can this simple check done everywhere in US but didn't happen at Samsung?

#4, Samsung should (required by State EPA regulations, not sure in Texas) inspect surrounding area air and water quality constantly (for example everyday or every hour) for any change. Obviously no such action was taken at Samsung for those 100+ days.

Yes, people can blame that "person" within Samsung Austin fab for not doing his/her job. But why this long established EPA + onsite EPA Certified Engineer system works well across US but not at Samsung Austin fab? It needs more than one or two Samsung employees and more than Samsung themselves to fail the whole system.
 
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TX Fly Fisher said:
Well, if you were familiar with Central Texas, you would know that the region is criss-crossed with countless miles of creeks, streams, and rivers. It takes time to periodically test every stretch of each of those, but the issue was detected and enforcement is in progress. One agency you don't want to mess with in the state is the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality so I'm sure Samsung doesn't like the position they're in.
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A properly designed and legally approved fab will have no chance to let waste water to get into storm water detention pond. IMO, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) failed in policy, procedure, monitoring, and enforcement to prevent such incident.

How can they let Samsung to get by for so long? It's a mystery to me.

Additionally I haven't seen any report saying thorough chemical tests had been done in the area against all those toxic materials commonly used by a foundry. They only talked about pH level is high or low.
 
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It turns out that Samsung Austin fab had another spill that got into the rain water detention pond and creeks in May 2021. How can Samsung Austin doesn't have an emergency/backup holding tank for those chemical waste?

Does Samsung try to cut down the cost by not having a holding tank? Were tight production schedule and hot market demand delayed Samsung's action before, during, and after the spills? Is pH level the only thing people need to worry about?

What will be different next time if Samsung doesn't have a holding tank? Can people trust Samsung's ability to monitor and manage their toxic waste?

 
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